Veneer clipper having means to position workpiece relative to the cutter blade



June 8, 1965 R. L. BEHLING 3,137,613

VENEER CLIPPER HAVING MEANS TO POSITION WORKPIECE RELATIVE TO THE CUTTER BLADE Filed Jan. 18, 1962 United States Patent 3,187,613 VENEER CLIPPER HAVENG MEANS T0 PGSITION WGRKPIECE RELATIWE TO THE CUTTER BLADE Robert L. Behiing, 2318 W. 4th Ave, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Filed Ian. 18, 1962, Ser. No. 167,014 1 Claim. (Ci. 83-207) This invention relates to veneer clipping apparatus and more particularly to a positioning and aligning apparatus for green or dry veneer clippers.

In the manufacture of veneer, logs are debarked and then circumferentially peeled into thin, wide sheets. To obtain top grade veneer from these sheets, imperfections caused by knots and the like are removed in a clipping apparatus. This is done by supporting sheets of several feet width on a surface, and clipping each sheet at various positions to slice out strips containing the imperfections. The remaining section-s are then re-assembled over a base to make a continuous sheet. During the above cutting operation, it has been conventional to use either adjacent rows of fixed pegs, or to use engraved lines on the table and spaced varying amounts from the cutter blade to enable a worker at the back end of the sheet to align the veneer sheet. With either of these conventional aligning means, individual workers skill largely determines two important factors, namely, the closeness of the cut to the imperfection (to minimize waste), and the parallelism of adjacent cuts to obtain strips which will readily interfit again to form a smooth veneer having straight edges.

Even when a skilled worker is operating such apparatus, the closeness of the cut to an imperfection is determined by the fixed position of a sight line or a row of pegs, thus causing considerable waste. Moreover, the worker or workers have to first align the blade on the imperfection at the front of the sheet, and then align the back edge of the sheet on the pegs or line. This is time consuming, tedious, and often causes errors in one end while aligning the other.

It is therefore the principal object of this invention to provide an adjustable veneer positioning means for a clipping apparatus capable of invariably enabling clipping of a wide veneer sheet at the closest, optimum location to imperfections in the sheet. It is another object to provide a clipping apparatus also capable of accurate alignment of the sheet to produce repeated adjacent cuts of accurate parallelism. These results can be effected even with relatively unskilled laborers, so that the apparatus optimizes production quantity and economy by substantially reducing waste, and optimizes quality by assuring parallel cuts of the sheet to obtain top grade veneer.

It is a further object to enable a worker to stand in one position adjacent the cutter blade where he can accurately sight down the blade and simultaneously closely adjust the veneer sheet to the optimum location.

These and other objects of this invention will be apparent upon studying the following specification in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective View of veneer clipping apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the underside of the novel apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a typical veneer sheet illustrating the accurate positioning and aligning capabilities of the novel apparatus; and

FIG. 4 is a .plan view of the typical sheet showing illustrative cutting results characteristic of prior art apparatus.

Basically, the invention comprises a positioning and aligning means on a veneer clipping apparatus roviding accurate, closely controlled adjustability to determine the exact location of wide veneer sheets under a cutter blade.

the top of the novel 3,187,513 Patented June 8, 1965 "ice The apparatus embodies an aligning means extending across the table, and mounted on at least two endless driving elements, preferably chains, adjacent opposite sides of the table. The two chains are mounted on and move around a first pair of sprockets spaced from the cutter and a second pair of sprockets adjacent the cutter. The latter pair is preferably mounted coaxially on a shaft extending to the side of and out from under the table. On this shaft is mounted a control handle means, preferably a wheel, in general alignment with the cutter blade to enable the operator to sight-down the blade while opera-ting the control wheel and positioning the veneer sheet.

Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus 10 includes support table or surface 14 mounted on suitable legs 16. It may be attached to supporting mounts 20 and 22 for cutter blade 18 adjacent one end of the table. Blade 18 is vertically reciprocable between the mounts 20 and 22 at the edge of the table to shear the veneer sheet. A conventional driving means (not shown) such as an eccentric shaft operated by an electrical motor is used to reciprocate the blade at the desired moment.

Adjacent the opposite sides of the table 14 are endless, longitudinal chain elements 30 and 32. Guide and positioner bar 34 extends across the table and is mounted adjacent its ends to these chains in a position always parallel to the cutter blade. The chains30 and 32 pass through openings 40 and 4-2 in the table 14 adjacent the cutter 18, engage sprocket hubs 44 and 46 mounted on shaft 48, extend rearwardly away from the cutter blade under the table, engage hubs or sprockets 50 and 52 mounted on shaft 54, and pass upwardly through table openings 62 and 64.

. Shaft54 is mounted between the sides of the table as on bearing blocks 60. Shaft 48 adjacent the cutter blade is'rnounted in a pair of bearing blocks 79 at opposite ends of the shaft and preferably also has a central bearing 72. An extension 8t of shaft 48 protrudes past the side edge of table 14. A control handle means constituting a wheel 82 is keyed to the end of the protruding shaft and thus is generally adjacent the blade. Rotation of wheel 82 rotates extension 80, shaft 48, and sprockets 44 and 46 to drive chains 30 and 32, and thus drive both ends of the elongated guide element simultaneously and smoothly toward or away from cutter 18.

Since the wheel is in general alignment with the cutter blade 18, the operator can accurately sight down the cutter blade across the veneer sheet while operating the adjustable positioner. Since the positioner may be shifted any small or large amount, the sheet may be carefully moved to the exact position desired. It further maintains the sheet in exact alignment with each cut to produce edges of accurate parallelism.

Operation In operation of the apparatus, a veneer sheet 12 several feet wide and having a plurality of imperfections, e.g. 84-, 86 and 88 is placed with its back edge 81 in an abutting relationship against the guide and positioner 34. To remove the imperfections from the sheet, narrow elongated strips containing the imperfections are sliced out of the sheet. These slices are indicated by the lines in the drawings.

The operator first aligns the cutter blade 18 with the front of the first imperfection 84 by sighting down the blade and slowly moving wheel 82 to move the guide 34 and thus sheet 12 toward the cutter. Thereafter, blade 18 is actuated and lowered to out along the sighted line 90 (FIG. 3) very close to the front edge of the first imperfection 84. After the cutter rises, the operator again accurately adjusts the guide to move the veneer sheet a short distance more toward the cutter to make a cut at 92 closely adjacent the back side of imperfection 84. This tections that waste is practically nil.

removes the strip containing the imperfection. The sheet is then advanced to make cuts at 94, 96, 98 and 99 to accurately remove the remaining imperfections 86 and 88, and leaving good strips 83, 95, 85, and 87. With the novel apparatus the cuts are made so close to the imper- By guiding both ends of the wide guide bar on endless chain elements, the

bar and the sheet are always kept accurately parallel to the blade, and thus while the operator stands in the one crucial aligning position.

This is contrasted to prior art apparatuses with which the operator had to align the back edge 81' (FIG. 4) of sheet 12' with a set of pins or a mere sight line to remove V duce, when assembled, a top grade veneer having parallel Edge trimming involves further time and mateedges. rial waste. Further, even the larger sheet portions such as 85' did not always match smoothly to form optimum edges due to the lack of any accurate, positive control over the parallelism of adjacent cuts.

The novel apparatus has been found to fill a substantial gap in the veneer clipping art, and to do so effectively. It substantially increases accuracy and reduces waste when cutting veneer sheets ordinarily difiicult to handle.

Certain obvious modifications may be apparent to those in the art upon studying the illustrated form of the in-' vention. Such modifications are deemed part of this invention which is to be limited only by the scope of the appended claim and the reasonable equivalents thereto.

I claim:

A wood veneer cutting apparatus comprising: a hori- I zontal supporting table having a flat unobstructed bed permitting visualization of a sheet of wood veneer thereon a cutting blade at one end of said table capable of cutting supported veneer sheets; an elongated veneer guide and stop element extending across said table and lying directly on said bed; at least two spaced chain drive means on opposite sides of said table connected tothe ends of said guide element at the bottom thereof to move said guide toward said cutter; chain sprocket means mounting said chain guide means, including a pair of coaxial sprockets mounted underneath said bed adjacent said cutter blade and a pair of coaxial sprockets adjacent the other end of said table and mounted underneath said bed; said table bed having two pairs of openings each pair located above a pair of said coaxial sprockets and receiving the chain drive means as they pass about said sprockets; and a control handle means mounted adjacent the side of said table generally in alignment with said cutter blade and operably connected to said sprocket means adjacent said cutter blade, whereby said veneer sheets can be uniformly moved beneath said cutter blade by said guide to obtain exactly parallel cuts to remove only undesirable areas without wastely sighting along said blade while adjusting said control handle means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 296,191 4/84 Lawlor 83-467 581,417 4/97 Feister -3. 83-467 1,095,250 5/14 Wadhams 83-416 1,438,810 12/22 Collier 83-391 1,577,644 3/26 Iuengst 83-437 1,680,988 8/28 Harman 146-148 1,989,071 1/35 Anderson 83-416 2,572,581 10/51 Ambeault 83-416 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,263 5/ 84 Great Britain.

ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. CARL W. TOMLIN, Examiner. 

